We left Litchfield N.P. Monday morning (25/8), headed back to the Stuart Hwy and turned south towards Katherine. However, there was another place we wanted to visit before Katherine – the Douglas (Tjuwaliyn) Hot Springs on the Douglas River.
relaxing in Douglas River
We took the longer scenic route, leaving the Stuart Hwy at the town of Adelaide River, heading out along an old country road. This turned out to be a rough bumpy ride, but we did come across Robins Falls on the way (not planned), so stopped there to have a look. There were a number of people camping along Georges Creek. Not a bad place for some free camping. We did the walk up to the falls, which were pretty!
Robins Falls
high tech signage… Nicole and Jonathan wondering where to go…lol, not set-up for the photo either!!!
the creek
undercut rock faces
glad we didn’t swim after watching this unsuccessfully trying to get out!
Then it was on to the Douglas Hot Springs. The final 7km’s in were dirt, but in good condition so it was no problem in the motorhome. There is a campground at the springs, which is a bit of a large dustbowl at the moment, but after having a look at the river we decided to stay the night anyway.
We’ve been to a number of springs now, but this was the most ‘natural’ of them. No concrete edges to these springs! The springs are right next to (actually in) the Douglas River, which is a pretty and sandy bottomed (mostly) creek. The creek itself is quite cool, as you’d expect from a typical running stream, however in various places on the campground side of the creek hot water flows out of the ground. So there are areas/pools of really hot water, which make there way into the general cool stream.
We walked/swum down and up the creek and settled at this ‘perfect’ spot. Just above Nicoles head (pic below) there is a small fast stream flowing into the main one, and it is very hot water. The main stream is of course cool/cold. Here we could choose our baking temperature – move to the side a little one way and cook, move a little to the other side and freeze, or stay put and be inbetween! Alternatively just move a little downstream, and let the changing water currents randomly fluctuate between very hot and freezing cold!! See, I told you we had it worked out perfectly! Nicole was uncomfortable in this straight ‘hot’ stream, and any of her skin underwater went red, but I was fine to stay in it for a while. There were other places that were hotter (burn you type hot), but tended to be very shallow.
As you can see from the photos, a pretty spot, and a nice novel way to relax and have a hot bath! The boys tried to photograph the Kingfishers flying around on dusk, mostly unsuccessfully!
Tuesday morning we headed south into Katherine. After some grocery shopping, lunch and a rest, we visited the Katherine Thermal Pools (which we didn’t do on the way up). These are quite similar to the Mataranka Thermal Pools, though not quite as warm (around 30C they reckon). A beautiful place too, but after the Douglas Hot Springs the thermal excitement of 30C doesn’t seem to cut it anymore!!! We’ve been spoilt….
one of the main swimming areas
The spring/source of it all! Couldn’t see the mains water pipe feeding it, lol.
We left Katherine at around 4pm, and are now camped at a free roadside campground on the Victoria Hwy – yes we are headed into WA tomorrow (Wed)! Jonathan cooked us some nice Enchilada’s for dinner tonight – thanks mate!